Eggshells
by Lastoftheamericandreamers
Summary: The episode "Mean Streets and Pastel Houses" told by Brian's younger sister Amanda.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own 21 Jump Street or the episode "Mean Streets And Pastel Houses"**

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My brother Brian used to be a really good kid. I dont mean he's bad or anything, just different somehow. He used to laugh all the time with this really big, toothy grin. Now the only time he ever really laughs is when one of his friends does something dangerous, stupid, or a combination of both. I dont think he really means it when he laughs though, because its always short before that blank, bored expression takes over again. Brian is a junior in high school, and makes really good grades even though he doesn't really like any of his classes. He has short, curly hair that looks black, but is actually a dark brown. His eyes are kinda big and a light green, but they can change colors to where they get so dark they're almost black. Pretty different, if you ask me. But then again Brian has always been different. I'm a sophmore, and take after Brian in hair color and eye shape, but that's about as a far as our resemblance goes. My eyes are big and bluish green and never change colors.

Even though Brian is a year older than me, he pretty much takes me wherever he goes. Maybe its because our parents got divorced or something. We usually hang with a small group of friends that we've known since we were kids. There's Jimmy, who's got long, black, curly hair that he keeps shagged over one eye sometimes, and dark blue eyes. He's always mouthing off to the cops and trashing up their cars with nothing more than a wolfish grin and two cans of spray paint. Spooky has reddish orange hair that's short, but kinda sticks out on the sides. He has a pointy nose and deep brown eyes. He likes to talk a lot, so we have to watch what we say around him because once you get him started on something, there's no stopping. Lastly there's Tober. Short for "October" even though that's not his real name. October is his favorite month, so the name sorta stuck. Tober is always getting into some argument with his parents, so he's usually on his own most of the time. None of us like the fact that there have been times when he's had to sleep on the streets, or in the park, but it doesn't seem to affect him any. Tober has bright brown eyes, dark eyelashes, and light brown hair that he likes to wear long, although with my help he keeps it styled in different ways . Its a bit hard to explain. And then there's Lancer.

Lancer is neither my friend, and I'm not even sure I can call him my enemy. Brian feels the same way. It's kinda ironic because Brian is sort of Lancers "second in command". Lancer dropped out of school his senior year, though none of us knew him until he joined in on one of our conversations. Spooky, who was, of course, running his mouth, was goin off on how he saw some kid getting beat by a couple of cops because he got jumped, but got out of it because he had scared the other kid off with a pocketknife. Lancer had walked over to us with his buckled combat boots, lit a cigarette, and started saying all this stuff about how kids like us are living under an oppression dressed in navy blue with billy clubs. He had us all hooked from there. At first I thought Lancer was pretty cool...until he started showing up a lot more and started talking all the time. And when he did, Jimmy, Spooky, and Tober would sit there like lap dogs and just nod along with whatever he was saying with this glassy look in their eyes. To say they all worshiped Lancer would be an understatement. Brian of course could see that Lancer was brainwashing them, but he never really said anything to me about it. Maybe because he didn't want to believe it was happening. I knew Brian didn't agree with Lancer on most things, but there have only been a handful of times when hes actually said anything. Lancer would get this fake, cheesy smile on his face before sauntering over to Brian and say "What was that _Bri?". _Brian would squeeze his hands into fists, and just look at Lancer with that cool, impassive face of his. I'd be looking at Lancer too, but with a quiet, anxious, fear instead. Lancer's the type of person that you dont wanna push too much, because he could get dangerous. Sometimes, he would look me over kinda slow from my head down to my feet, and Brian's eyes would harden and turn slowly from light green, to dark brown before wrapping an arm protectively around my shoulders. I think it made the other guys nervous too, because they would all look away and pop their knuckles. Jimmy always bit his bottom lip and Tober would grit his jaw.

Right now I am sitting at the kitchen counter with my hand halfway inside a cereal box. My headphones are on and a song by Duran Duran pounds into my eardrums. I didn't even know the phone had started ringing until Brian races into the kitchen with a textbook in his hand and a frustrated look on his face. He brings his hand up and makes a "turn it down' motion, so I take my hand out the cereal box and turn down the volume on my walk man while Brian answers the phone. The conversation was really short, because Brian just looks at the phone with an eyebrow raised before turning fully to face me. "One of the guys?" I ask. "Jimmy. I guess we're going out tonight. He's gunna come by and pick us up in an hour or so." Brian picks up his textbook from the table and flips through it before closing it. "Im gunna go get ready." he says before walking slowly back up the steps.


	2. Chapter 2

I spent at least a good fifteen extra minutes searching for that prize. Someone needs to call that cereal company. I walked past Brian's room and saw him digging through one of his dresser drawers wearing his jean jacket with the studs and cut off sleeves. By his clothing I could tell that Lancer would probably be joining us on whatever we were gunna do. I went into my own room, which was covered in Billy Idol posters, and reached blindly into one of my dresser drawers, digging around until I pulled out something to wear. Huh, a Billy Idol t-shirt, who woulda thought? I put on some eye shadow and my faded purple high tops and flopped onto the couch downstairs.

I guess I dozed off because all of a sudden I wake up to someone repeatedly poking me on the forehead. Poke, poke, poke. I swear its like the freaking Chinese Water Torture. I groan and open my eyelids and see that Tober is the one doing the poking. As I sit up he gets this big grin on his face before taking his finger off my forehead. The clock on the wall tells me that we have less than 25 minutes until Jimmy shows up. I think I know why Tober is here by himself. I sit up oh so slowly and rub the crustiness out of my eyes.

"Get up Amanda, I need you to do my hair." Yep. I figured. Though I actually enjoy doing Tober's hair so I wasn't too grouchy. He followed me upstairs to the bathroom, pausing in Brian's doorway to say "Hey" first. He took a seat on the edge of the bathtub while I reached up on tiptoes to grab the necessary supplies. These being a can of hair spray, some hair coloring, and a comb. I turned around to face Tober, tapping the comb against my chin as I thought of some styles that could work on him. Tober sat there patiently, staring at me for a good minute before puffing out his cheeks and blowing a raspberry. He looked like a fish...and that gave me an idea. There's only one condition I have when Tober wants me to do his hair. He's not allowed to look into a mirror until I'm done. I know, I know, this sounds weird, maybe a little mean. But hey, at least I don't charge him for my services. After running the comb through his hair for the last time I sprayed it with a cloud of hair spray. Tober hopped up and looked into the mirror, admiring the blue and green Mohawk I had given him, similar to some of the punks around our area. His mouth widened into a big grin after he reached up a hand to poke the hardened tips of his hair. "Thanks Amanda!" Brian appeared in the doorway, nodding his head in approval as he gave Tober's hair a nice look. He looked at me and gave me a thumbs up before saying " Jimmy's out front with Tober." Before leaving the house, Brian made sure to write mom a note explaining that both of us would be out with the guys.

I slid into the backseat of Jimmy's car after Brian and Tober, and as I shut the door Jimmy eyed me from the backseat. "Hey there miss 'Manda Panda" I smiled, he had come up with the nickname for me when we were younger. Spooky turned around from the passenger seat and gave me a bug eyed grin. Boy, he's always so hyper! Jimmy cranked up the radio and we sang along (rather loudly) to all the songs we knew. I was looking out one of the backseat windows when I saw them. Around three guys were all in this faded blue truck, crammed into the front seat. At first I thought nothing of it, but I saw Tober kinda lean forward with roundish eyes while Brian clenched his hands together. The truck drove on past us, but I swore I thought I saw one of the guys give us a devilish smirk. Jimmy eyed the truck with malice, relaxing when they passed us. Its been going on for a while now, this rivalry between different groups. I'm not even sure I can call it gangs. Brian tried to keep me away from it as best he could, which was pretty hard since I was always around him and the guys. Usually he would come home after a rumble with one of the "opposite groups" with a few scratches and bruises, nothing too serious. Lancer, however, always came out without a single scratch on him. Like he stood aside and commanded them all to fight each other or something. He was always talking about justice for people like us, but yet he was the one who encouraged the fights the most.

We ended up going to Wendy's, and later on, the park. On the way back home Brian drove instead because Jimmy was feeling queasy I tried to warn him that eating five bacon cheeseburgers wouldn't exactly fly with his digestive tract. He sat in the backseat with me on the other side of Tober. Everything was just fine until that stupid truck came back. And this time we got a lot more than just a snide smirk. There were two additional people aside from the original three. Three of them were sitting in the truck bed calling out to us and waving their fists. One of them threw something at Jimmy's car, causing him to forget his upset stomach and roll the back window down, cursing them out. The truck moved closer to the car we were all in, signaling that they were looking for a fight. Brian grit his teeth together and ignored them at first, but then Jimmy leaned forward and whispered something in his ear. Brian shook his head to the side. As Jimmy leaned back against the backseat, one of the guys' arms from the truck tried pulled on his leather jacket. "Brian!" I yelled. All of a sudden Jimmy threw himself halfway out the car window, yanking on whoever was messing with him before. Tober grabbed Jimmy from behind and tried to pull him back inside...or at least to keep him steady so he wouldn't fall all the way out. The game of tug and pull lasted for a couple of minutes before the guy from the truck fell out of the bed and crashed to the ground. I unbuckled my seat belt and turned all the way around and watched his body roll around before coming to a stop. He was face down. Brian stomped on the brake pedal a good five yards up ahead. "C'mon kid...get up." I heard him mutter. I felt a cold sweat break out on my forehead. What if he was dead? The guys buddies lifted him gently into the truck, and as they sped past us they all gave us a last evil were somewhat quiet on the drive home. I refused to look anywhere besides out the window while Jimmy, Tober, and Spooky had short conversations with each other about random topics. Brian, I noticed, looked straight ahead. His eyes looked troubled.

Before I shut my bedroom door on my way inside, I grabbed Brian by the arm as he was passing through before pulling him towards me for a hug. He didn't say anything to me, nor I to him, but I could tell he was trying hard not to cry because of the small sniffling sounds he made. Gee, how worse can this get?


End file.
